Friday, November 04, 2016

India Will Lease Another Akula Class SSN From Russia

New Delhi has furthered its plans to lease another Russian nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) for the Indian Navy (IN) for around 10 years at a cost of around USD1.5-2 billion.

Official sources told IHS Jane's that Moscow and New Delhi agreed at this year's India-Russia summit in Goa on 15 October that India would lease a half-built 8,140-tonne Project 971 'Akula'-class boat from 2021-22 onwards, the completion and sea trials of which India would finance.

Construction of the proposed SSN is said to have been suspended in the early 1990s following the break-up of the Soviet Union, as happened to the submarine formerly known as Nerpa (K 152): the SSN that entered IN service in April 2012 under the name INS Chakra on a 10-year lease for around USD962 million.